Ronjan Sodhi shot 134 out of 150 and finished 21st in double trap in the shooting World Cup at the Royal Artillery Barracks, London, on Monday.
One of the brightest hopes for a medal in the London Olympics, Ronjan shot rounds of 45, 46 and 43. He said that his preparations were on track and that he could have shot better but for the rain, wind and the cold conditions, which brought the overall scores down. In fact, Peter Robert Russell Wilson of Britain who had shot a new world record 198 recently, missed the final by one point after shooting 138.
‘'I have a lot to learn. There is no cover and it has been raining the whole day. The range is fine overall, though there were a few break-downs, but this spell of cold conditions was a surprise as fine weather was reported about a week or so back,'' said Ronjan.
The Asian Games gold medallist who has won the World Cup Finals twice in the last two editions, Ronjan said that his shooting was fine as he was tuning nicely in the run-up to the Games.
“I was getting a feel of the range and treated the event as a test. I was worried about the clay targets being hard during the World Cup Finals, but they have really improved on it,'' observed Ronjan. The two other Indians in the fray, Olympic silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and the young Sangram Dahiya followed Ronjan closely with scores of 130 and 132 that placed them 27th and 24th respectively.
In fact, Dahiya had a good start with a round of 48, but slipped to rounds of 42 thereafter. Rathore had two rounds of 43 followed by 44.
Rifle shooters struggle
Meanwhile, the Indian rifle shooters struggled at the 50-metre free rifle prone event, as only Sushil Ghalay made the cut with a score of 590, while Joydeep Karmakar (589) and Gagan Narang (586) both of whom would be shooting the event in the Olympics, were eliminated. The qualification series followed by the final will be held on Tuesday.
In the women's 25-metre sport pistol final on Sunday, 19-year-old Youth Olympics champion, Kim Jang Mi of Korea clinched the gold with a world record total of 796.9, after an impressive qualification score of 592 that gave her a four-point margin.
The results:Women: Sport pistol: 1. Kim Jang Mi (Kor) 796.9 (WR) 592; 2. Celine Goberville (Fra) 791.2 (586); 3. Lenka Maruskova (Cze) 790.4 (588); 9. Rahi Sarnobat 582; 22. Annu Raj Singh 578.
